Black section on MN

[PatricksRum]

I think it would be great if Mumsnet could make a black parents section/ section for black users.

I am not white, I am not black. My child is a mixed race child. I see no problem people wanting the section they want to talk about relevant things to them. Why not?

This is so tiring. If someone wants something, it's between them and MNHQ. Why some people who aren't affected need to argue about it should or shouldn't? Maybe that is the reason why they definitely needs the section people can talk without getting negative comments from others.

Still looking forward to hearing why its useful to have boards representing:
(1) special interest groups (eg the fiish keepers)
(2) specific challenges faced by minoriities (eg LGBT)

are just fine but a topic focused around the special interests or challenges faced by black women will cause western civilisatiion to fall.

It's segregation full stop. Now, obviously in SA and the southern US states it was enforced by the legal power of the state. Perhaps equal-but-segregated by choice will prove to be a positive thing.

In SA/Southern it was anti black. This is pro black (and not anti white to paraphrase Stormzy) and a support network.

I'm white and think this a terrific idea. I'm horrified (but not surprised) at the whataboutery on this thread that rather proves the OP's point.

If people are getting bent out of shape about the fate of white working class boys (an example upthread), perhaps they should get MNHQ to set up a specific board of their own?

Please don't derail PatricksRum's thread @SimonJT

@drspouse

(And we don't have an Englandnet)

It’s all the other boards... lol

One of the reasons scotsnet exists is that it was pretty much impossible to ask for instance a school related question - you’d post something using Scottish terms for things, saying you were in Scotland and you still got mostly answers about English schools.... mixed in with, people posting to say they couldn’t answer because they’re English and people insisting you were using the wrong terms, lol.

So I can see the need for a topic for issues that affect black peoples differently.

I will say though that there definitely have been hair threads in style and beauty - I’ve posted on them... so while I’m white and my actual hair care is rarely of use, I can add things like... I have that cut and 2c hair, the reason you’re seeing lots of photos of that cut with 2c hair is that it’s good for adding volume, you might find it adds too much volume to your hair... (because someone was asking about a style)

There are a lot of curly people who do have to use numbers and letters and because they use groups and forums about curls do have some knowledge of other hair types.

I mean, not saying a specific hair topic might not be useful, but style and beauty is not as bad as you might think for being helpful.

@ElizabethMainwaring

Please don't derail PatricksRum's thread *@SimonJT*

I apologise, but I think a blatant lie should be defended. I won’t post it on here again.

@SoupDragon

That is an interesting question about the disability and sexuality-based boards. My initial response is that I would expect a separate disability board under "Health" (I don't know what the actual arborescence is on MN), because there are lots of different disabilities which would get lost in a general health board. The sexuality one is less obvious, though.

The point is that there are specific issues resulting from being black (I'm white, I'm going by what I've been told) that would be lost on the main boards. There are differences to "black parenting" with The Talk being one of them. I bet there are others.

I remember listening to the lyrics of Black by Dave and there were several lightbulb moments about things I will never have to experience.

You mean as a parent you've never told your children how to behave if a person in authority stops them ? Despite being white in a white-majority country, I've probably already told my children what to do if they're stopped by the police maybe 5 times already, and they're not even 10. As they get older I'll explain their rights and how to exercise them to them, and what to do if they genuinely feel they are being harassed by the police.

There is a large population of working-class whites in the UK, and elsewhere, who do not feel as if they have benefited much from the much-vaunted 'white privilege'

Yes, they do, because if it came down to, say, a job being offered between two "working class" interviewees and one is white and one is non-white, historically the white interviewee has been awarded the job. White privilege exists. The fact you don't understand this shows you have never had to experience this which is great for you but also sad that in your ignorance you still feel the need to comment on something you have no actual experience of.

@SoupDragon

It's segregation full stop. Now, obviously in SA and the southern US states it was enforced by the legal power of the state. Perhaps equal-but-segregated by choice will prove to be a positive thing.

In SA/Southern it was anti black. This is pro black (and not anti white to paraphrase Stormzy) and a support network.

Sorry, yes, I didn't address that the segregation in those states was segregated-and-oppressed. But I think my point still stands. Do we want a society where skin colour is unimportant ? Or do we want a society where skin colour is a defining element of a person ? I'd rather the former, but it appears the current preference seems to be for the latter.

I lived in West Africa for 3 years. I am well aware of racial profiling, my children being white and yet questioned and being discarded as "not really African"

Oh, wow, three whole years of being in South Africa and being told you're not "African" enough, well yes, that shows everyone how you MUST understand what it's like then as a white person with white privilege living in a predominantly white country like the UK 😂😂

@lookatalkthosechickens
Can you stop too please?

as a white poster I would support this. IMO The School That Tried to End Racism clearly showed the value of addressing race issues openly and in safe and understanding spaces. There is no reason whatsoever that this would lead to marginalisation of discussions around race, and as so many posters note, if MN can find room for a board for my niche hobby (it does) then surely this is no biggie?

OMG! Give me a break 🙄

@ElizabethMainwaring I'm sorry, who are you?

I think the fact that another poster is running all over the site claiming that there's some kind of skin colour verification process in place because he didn't like what happened when he got called out by a Black woman (that's me, by the way) for being racist in a thread about Black music is pretty fucking relevant to why a section of the site devoted to Black users is important.

MNHQ need look no further than this thread to see that @PatricksRum 's suggestion is a good one

Yeah that’s great. Encourage more division between people. White users go here, black users go there, oriental over there. People who just feel they are human get told no, you have to label yourself.

Oh hey @PatricksRum From one Patrick to another 🖤

@YouJustDoYou

I lived in West Africa for 3 years. I am well aware of racial profiling, my children being white and yet questioned and being discarded as "not really African"

Oh, wow, three whole years of being in South Africa and being told you're not "African" enough, well yes, that shows everyone how you MUST understand what it's like then as a white person with white privilege living in a predominantly white country like the UK 😂😂

Fucking hell, can anybody read.

West Africa is not South Africa. It was Togo. My wife, the children's mother, is Togolese. So they are Togolese. Got their ID cards and everything. So, yes, it is analogous to the idea of "where are you really from" and being "othered". I didn't say I was being accused of not being African, because I have never claimed to be African.

Also, I was stopped, on average, once a week being a white guy driving. Once a week for 3 years, with a 100% "random" chance of being stopped every time I was go out of, or heading into, the main city on a main road. I have had AK47s pointed at me by police to give my consent that yes, I did drive through a red light when I didn't. Because the alternative of being a white guy in an African prison (per the A-Team, for a crime I didn't commit) is not very pleasant. All this alongside the general day-to-day BS when you look different.

So, yes, I am intensely aware of what it is like to be a minority ethnicity, not black in the UK, but a minority nonetheless.

@Nomnomarrgh

Yeah that’s great. Encourage more division between people. White users go here, black users go there, oriental over there. People who just feel they are human get told no, you have to label yourself.

Yawn.

If you don’t get it, just say so. You don’t need to make yourself look like an idiot to prove it.

@Nomnomarrgh

Yeah that’s great. Encourage more division between people. White users go here, black users go there, oriental over there. People who just feel they are human get told no, you have to label yourself.

oriental seriously?! Fucking hell...

I've seen it posted before that any online discussion about feminism inevitably demonstrates the need for feminism. I think this thread equivalently demonstrates why a separate space to discuss issues specific to black (or BAME, as preferred) parenting is a great idea! I hope @MNHQ consider it.

Surely MN users are mature enough to understand that having a black board on the site for specifically black issues is potentially useful, and not at all the same as segregating the site and forbidding black members from posting on any other boards?

I post on the “ litter tray” board sometimes, but I don’t feel that cat owners should be kept off the rest of the site, or that they are being exclusive and shutting out non cat owners!
If black MNers want a board, why can’t they just speak to MNHQ and start one? We need to ditch the angst and emotionalism around race, and just look at it from a practical point of view.

I'm perhaps a bit more militant than other Black folks on this site. Not only do I think that section for Black topics should be created, like, yesterday, I think that Mumsnet should hire a Black woman, specifically, to moderate it, if they don't already have a Black woman on staff who wants to take the work on (does Mumsnet have any Black staff? I'd be interested to know).

I also don't see it as a 'place for white people to read and learn'. I mean if that happens, great, but that's pretty much at the bottom of my list of reasons why I think it's important. If you're white and you haven't taken advantage of the many many thousands of resources from the earliest Slave narratives to the online resources linked in their thousands on social media in the wake of the BLM movement, then, I guess, catch up? I'm not interested in creating another resource for you right now. I'm interested in a space on Mumsnet where I can exist and communicate with other Black parents (or non-parents) without wading through the treacle of racism that permeates every other part of this site.

I mean that's not going to happen, I can't see this site hiring a moderator or team of moderators to pro-actively keep the racists at bay, which means that any Black-centred board would immediately descend into a racist hellscape. But it would be so nice if it could happen.